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Wednesday, December 21, 2016

10 Years of Mexico's War on Drugs, In Pictures

Translated by Valor for
Borderland Beat

Former President Felipe Calderón declared the war
against drug trafficking on December 11, 2006, in Mexico, leaving an outcome
calculated with over 27,000 people disappeared, 150,000 dead, and 280,000
displaced from their home.

December 11, 2016, marked the 10 year anniversary of Mexico's War on Drugs.

Former President Felipe Calderón watches a
military vehicle on top of a pile of weapons confiscated in Ciudad Juárez.The PANista
unleashed the war on drugs on December 11, 2006.Photo: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

In this archived photo of January 12, 2014, men
belonging to the autodefensas of Michoacán travel on board a truck full of
sandbags as they try to expel alleged members of the Knights Templar Cartel
from the city of Nueva Italia, México.Photo: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

In this photo from
October 9, 2009, the corpse of an unidentified man beaten and mutilated hangs
from his neck under a bridge on the old road Rosarito, in Tijuana.Photo: AP / Guillermo Arias

Image from August 16,
2011, shows the bodies of two men shot dead next to the Caleta Beach in
Acapulco.Photo: AP / Bernandino
Hernández

In this photo from
January 16, 2014, a child helps his father to arrange the weapons at a
checkpoint established by the autodefensas of Michoacán in Tancitaro.Photo: AP / Felix Márquez

People paint sketches of
bodies as part of a memorial for the dead on the death anniversary of the war
on drugs at the Monument to the Revolution in Mexico City.Photo: AP / Rebecca Blackwell

In this photo from
September 6, 2014, a soldier enters a house riddled with bullets, labeled with
the initials CDG for the Gulf Cartel and Z for the Zetas, in Ciudad Victoria,
Tamaulipas.Photo: AP / Eduardo Verdugo

In this photo from May
6, 2011, the hand of a corpse hangs from a bed with a syringe, in an improvised
morgue inside a container in Durango. Photo: AP / Dario López-Mills

In this archived photo
of April 16, 2016, soldiers salute Mexico’s Secretary of Defense, General Salvador
Cienfuegos, at the No. 1 military camp in Mexico City.Photo: AP / Marco Ugarte

1240..the world isn't blind. They are being kept in the dark by the media. This happens right across the US border and the attrocities, even from a larger perspective versus individual murders, is never in the news. Mexico ensures they maintain their tourism income that way.

Powerful post Valor. I don't live in Mexico but I have followed the devastation of innocents since the beginning. My heart bleeds for each one. May God bless everyone in Mexico who is living this nightmare. Peace.

Photos of a holocaust in Mexico which continues to this date. Big kudos to the journalists and photographers whose work is exhibited throughout the world and hopefully not forgotten........ We applaud you for being in a war zone , where others don't have the stomach for........

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that In the process he does not become a monster. AND when you look into an abyss,The abyss also looks into you. Nietzche...For all those brave journalist and photographers. Peace be with you.

Thank you for sharing.Peace be with you also; it is a place in our hearts and souls often hard to find, Knowing what we know.We must , however, reserve a space for each of us .Denial is a seductive state of mind.......Knowledge is the power of change which we must dedicate ourselves to spread.

He got involved in and was issuing driving licenses to iffy people(probably had no choice) irregularities,including El Teo under an alias,the picture you see of Teo in shirt and tie appeared in public afterwards(one of the lines)it seemed like El Teos work,that bridge isnt far from a army gate also,mocking them?

@7:15 You make it sound like Calderon started a fight and then just ran away. You kind of skipped over the fact in between he presided over an administration that saw 6 of the bloodiest most violent years of the drug war. What would you have had him do when his term ran out and he could do more in the ongoing fight?

DD cynics will always run their mouths because it's alot easier than committing any sort of action. The same goes 4 all those who hold such intelligible conversations on here. Don't ever confuse talk with action. You buttercups know who you are. - El Sol Perdido

6:56 his administration favored one cartel over the others(sinaloa). He caused a pointless war that has made things worse, yes some top capos are gone and some cartels have been weakened but at what cost? Other groups have just popped up and seem to be more violent the groups they originally separated from,kidnapping extortion and so many crimes are being committed all over Mexico.

Perdido, just like you ran your mouth with the story about the kid creating a bullet proof backpack? You lazily blamed the parents for not doing more yet what are YOU doing to protect kids other than running your own mouth? Take your own advice and, also, learn how to write.

Well, if the dog brings the 💩 💩 💩 💩 poop! into the house, one is not supposed to beat up the cat, just because someone "works for the government" collecting a paycheck for nothing, it is not suppossed to be a weapon to attack people that really work for a living. If you served your country, well, thanks, retire, move on, go on with your life, stop being on the G titty forever, and if you can't, ok but keep your maff shut, there is no honor there.

Calderon stir up thu nest but nobody back him up. When do u ever see el PRI try an do something for this country. To this day i give calderon credit for aleast trying. But i guess mexico would rather be thu same. Thu poor will always be poor. An thu rich well lets just say take advantage off thu poor. Definition of MEXICO.

315, look at what happens to people that do try to change Mexico. They are largely unarmed, and even if they can fight back, look what happens to even the best of them (e.g., Dr. Mireles). I'm not saying they shouldn't try at all, but it's not always as easy as staying and trying to change it.

A revolution is indeed the only solution for Mexican citizens to live in peace and prosper in the future. Government is useless and inept to govern, corruption and misery has cemented in aspect of life . An episode of the walking dead!!!!

The US is itching for an excuse to burn some old bombs, if all the mexicans wear their black bedspreads and hang around with enough aluminum pressure cookers yelling in spanish at the border, that may bring an idot response, I mean immediate, response from the US... I say bomb chilango land first, also known as edomex, el estado de mexico, all the higways first to keep the Atracomulcas inside, then the military barracks.

Calderon started the so called war on drugs but just made it worse. He didn't go after cjng or cds but crushed la familia Michoacana and went after the zetas and Juarez cartel. He should have gone at all the same and started with the politicians. It's bs. There is no such thing as war on drugs in Mexico, all the govt in Mexico let a cartel operate in their state. Start with the politicians and the heads of cartels and make the way down!! Never will happen, I bet even that rat looking Calderon received some drug money from a cartel and it was most likely cds.

My condo in Acapulco is next door to the El Presidente hotel. A couple days ago, the owner failed to pay the electric bill & people could be seen using candles in their rooms. The pool has turned a shi+ green color. The good news is, the guests & hotel workers are no longer blocking the Costera. That, and the fact that the Peso is pushing 21 to the dollar. My rent went up 5%, but really went down 9% thanks to that, woot! Welcome to PARADISE.

What does any of this have to do with the drug war? The drug war has fostered an environment that allows me to afford a huge condo on the beach. And the reality of Acapulco is not the violence-ravaged wasteland many of you think that it is. But go ahead & keep thinking that, while I enjoy my early retirement.

What am I supposed to do, fix the Drug War? Before you start asking unanswerable rhetorical questions of strangers on the Internet, go look into a mirror & ask the person you see there what you've done today to solve the Drug War...and all of the world's other problems too, while you're at it.

My wife & I employ eleven [11] Acapulqueños full time and pay them all 500+% over minimum wage. WTF do you do?

Minimum wage is $2.99 which used to be about $37,50 pesos a day, so you pay your employees 500% above is what 15 dollars a day? --on the US, people say and brag they pay mexicans "$25.00 dollars" to make sure they stay in their country, what they don't say is that they pay that for 5 days of work, sometimes 6, and sometimes 10 or 12 hour shifts, that is hunger salaries

Mex min wage is currently 70.10 pesos/day, which means we pay our employees 713% of min wage for a very pleasant 8 hour day, 6 days a week. Whether it is a living wage or not is beyond the purview of this discussion.

Everyone who works for us treasures their job. None will find equivalent pay anywhere in Acapulco, they've all told me so. En pocas palabras, if you ask anyone who works for us, my wife & I are super cool people.

Minimum wage is 2.99 dollars a day, in pesos about 60 pesos a day, 100%200% would be 6,00 dollars a day, 120.00 pesos300% would be 9.00 dollars a day, 180.00 pesos400% would be 12.00 dollars a day, 240.00 pesos500% .........15 dollars a day, 300.00 pesos600% .........18.00 dollars a day, 360.00 pesos700% .........21.00 dollars a day, 420.00 pesosHaving a job in mexico is a wonderful thing, having a business is better, nothing personal, but the mexican government that pays itself as if they are royalty and deserve all the free gasoline and million dollar bonuses a month for murdering and disappearing mexicans they deserve nothing but to have their arses kicked to the hangman in the nearest tree, we the poor broke arses will find a place to call our own by ourselves, and sure enugh, there comes the mexican government envoys asking us to send money every month, they need dollars to steal...

This war has caused way more deaths thn Syria... Only gets attention on social network sites... While Carlos Slim breaks bread with Donald Trump... Neither gives a damn about human life... War equals $$$$$$...